Bringing Her Home
by Dragonball X Avalon
Summary: So instead of letting Buffy disappear for months without a word, Xander decides to go find her and bring her home.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So, I watched Anne, and I was completely thrown by how everyone acted, especially Willow and Xander. While it's admirable that they wanted to make sure that the vampire population was kept down in Buffy's absence, I just can't get how laid back they seem about her being gone. Especially Xander. The same guy who has proven time and time again that he will risk life and limb to help Buffy is suddenly okay with her coming back whenever she's ready? When he hasn't heard from her in months? Really? I don't buy it. So this is me fixing that.**

**Summer's Residence-9 am**

"Buffy! Buffy!" Xander yelled as he walked into the house. Buffy hadn't shown up for school, and no one had seen her since she stopped Angel. At first, he had thought that maybe she just wanted time to herself, time to grieve. But then one day had turned into three, and he still hadn't heard from her. In his gut, Xander knew something was wrong.

"She's not here Xander."

The young man turned at the sound of the woman's voice, seeing Joyce Summer's standing in the doorway to Buffy's room.

"Ms. Summer's I was…"

"Looking for Buffy?" She asked, and he nodded. She walked into the room, walking over to the now empty dresser. Joyce picked up a note and handed it to Xander without a word.

The note only had three words.

_Job's done. Goodbye._

Xander read over the note three different times, his mind spinning as he tried to figure out what the words meant. The job being done had to be in reference to Buffy stopping Angel from unleashing hell on earth. The goodbye was pretty self-explanatory, but what could have pushed Buffy to leave Sunnydale? To leave her family, her friends...to leave him?

_Oh I don't know...Maybe she found out that you never told her there was a chance to save Angel's soul you jackass._

Xander glared down at the words on the note, wondering if his fears were correct. Had Buffy discovered that he had not told her what Willow was going to attempt? Did she leave because she hated Xander, hated him for denying her this final chance to save the man she loved?

"It was my fault. It's my fault she left." Joyce said, and Xander raised his eyes from Buffy's note.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, and she sighed as a tear fell down her cheek.

"I….I saw her with this guy uh Spike and-"

"Spike was here?! Did he hurt her?" Xander asked, his mind racing at Joyce's words. He felt the air leave his lungs. If Spike had Buffy, then she was probably already dead.

"Wait you know him? You know that she's-"

"The Slayer. Yeah, I know. Now what were you saying about Spike?" He asked, trying to keep Joyce focused. His mind flashed back to what his father's old friend had once told him. Keep your suspect on topic, especially if you're pressed for time. Now Xander wasn't an investigator, and Joyce wasn't technically a suspect. Buffy's bedroom wasn't some crime scene. She had run away from home. Teenagers did it all the time.

But Buffy wasn't just a teenager. She was the Slayer. More importantly, she was the girl Xander Harris was head over heels in love with. Regardless of how she may feel about him, he needed to know that she was okay.

"He said he was going to help her stop Angel, but only if she let him and uh Dru he called her, leave Sunnydale. He said they'd never come back. She told him to go make sure that Giles was alive and she said that if Giles died...Did he die?" She asked, and Xander shook his head.

"He's fine. Now let me guess...Buffy told Spike that if Giles died, she would dust Drusilla." He said calmly.

"Buffy said she would kill her." Joyce said, and Xander rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I gathered that. Vampires turn into dust when you stake em. What happened after Spike left?"

"I told her to go to the police, that she could get herself off of this murder charge for-"

"She didn't kill Kendra." Xander said, and Joyce glared.

"I know that now, I-"

"You know that now?! What do you mean you know that now? You mean you actually thought that she could kill a human?" He asked, and Joyce glared.

"I didn't know what to think! My daughter has lied to me for years! For goodness sake, she burned down the gym at her old school."

"There were vampires!" He yelled back, remembering what Buffy had told them after they found out she was the Slayer.

"Like that explains anything! In fact, I'm sick of this! I'm sick of no one explaining to me just what the hell is going on! I want answers!" She yelled, and he glared.

"Yeah? Well I can't give them to you. That's Buffy's choice."

"Just like it was her choice to walk out that door after I told her that if she did-"

Joyce's voice broke as her eyes filled with tears again. Xander didn't need her to finish. It all clicked. Joyce had given Buffy an impossible choice. Stay and let the world go to hell, in this case literally, or go and lose her home.

He clenched his fist around the note held in his grip.

"Dammit. Do you have any idea what you've done?" He asked as he walked past her.

"Yes. Where are you going?" Joyce asked, and he stopped.

"I'm going to bring her home."

**A/N: So here's the first chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! Please read and review, and more will be coming soon!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

So, he had done it. He had decided that he was going to find Buffy and bring her home. He was going to make sure she understood that she didn't need to be alone, and even though it would possibly earn him her hatred, he was going to tell her the truth. He was going to tell her what he should have told her before she went off to face Angel. He was going to tell her that Willow had tried to save Angel's soul, and if that didn't earn Xander her hatred he would tell her the rest. He would say that he didn't tell her because he was afraid. He was afraid she would hold back when fighting Angel. He was afraid he would have to see her dead again.

He also knew that that wasn't the only reason he had failed to tell Buffy the truth. Part of his decision had been based on jealousy. He was jealous that Angel got the girl. Angel got to kiss her and hold her hand. He got to tell Buffy he loved her. He wasn't there for every single fight that Buffy had, he didn't see her every day, he wasn't always by her side. But none of that seemed to matter. Whenever Angel showed up Buffy acted like he was the most important thing in her world. Even after Angel had resurrected the Judge, Buffy still loved him. Xander hated it. He hated that she couldn't see what was right in front of her, and he hated himself. Xander hated that he may have broken her heart.

He sighed and shook his head, walking into his house. He headed for his room, closing the door behind him. He reached under the bed, and he pulled out a black duffel bag. Xander unzipped it, relieved to see that the bag was untouched. He had the money he had made last summer from fixing various issues with his neighbor's homes. What was left of it anyway. He had spent a good chunk of it on the necklace he had gotten Cordelia, but he still had some left. Hopefully it would be enough to track Buffy down. If it wasn't, he would cross that bridge when he came to it. He pulled out the two sets of clothes he kept in the bag and placed them on the bed before reaching back in the bag and pulling out two wooden boxes. He opened them, checked that the contents hadn't been disturbed, and placed them back in the bag. Finally, he took a cross and a stake from either of his pockets and placed them on top of the wooden boxes. Xander grabbed the bag, took one more glance around the room and walked out, shutting the door behind him.

**Summer's House-12:30**

"Buffy! Xander!" Willow yelled as she walked into the house, her eyes searching for any trace of her friends.

"Willow! Has no one taught you how to knock? Good grief, between you and Xander, I feel like I should install a revolving door." Joyce said as she walked out into the hall.

"I..I'm sorry Ms. Summers, but Xander told me he went to look for Buffy, and since our last day was a half day and I hadn't heard from him-'

"You thought you'd come here and try to find him, is that it?" Joyce snapped, and Willow nodded. The young girl stepped back for a moment, a twinge of fear going through her at Joyce's tone. She wasn't used to being yelled at by adults. In that way she and her best male friend differed. She knew that Xander's father was not a good man, yelling at his son for every infraction, no matter how small. It was partly how they had become so close. Xander had realized that when he wasn't at home he didn't have to deal with his father's rages, and more to the point, his father didn't care enough to come looking for him. So Xander spent more and more time at the Rosenberg household, even being given his own room after a while. Willow and Xander had helped each other, she with the abuse he had suffered at the hands of his father, and he with the pain Willow felt from her mother who became more and more focused on her career as Willow grew older. There were many days where Willow would barely see her mother, and so she and Xander had become each other's family. When Buffy had come to Sunnydale, that family had expanded to include her as well. Willow had come to regard Buffy as the sister she had never had, while Xander had grown to care for Buffy Summers in a considerably less familial sense. Her best friend was head over heels in love with the blonde slayer, while he was simultaneously oblivious of the way Willow felt about him. Willow pushed the hurt and jealousy that she began to feel back down into the furthest depths of her mind. Her emotions wouldn't help her find her friends.

She stared back at Buffy's mother, the woman clearly waiting on Willow's response to her question.

"I hoped I'd find them here." She said quietly, and Joyce glared.

"Well you won't! Buffy's gone, and Xander has this ridiculous idea that he's going to find her. I swear you people-"

"What's that supposed to mean? Us people?" Willow questioned, her voice taking on a note of anger.

Joyce felt her fragile grip on self-control snap when she heard Willow's words. She had been put through the wringer, first with Buffy refusing to explain what was going on and refusing to listen to her about calling the police, then later with Xander speaking to her as though he was somehow her equal and now Willow was giving her attitude. Well Joyce wasn't going to tolerate it anymore.

"I mean you and Xander and Giles and whoever else keeps acting like they know what's best for my daughter! You people who have convinced her that she somehow has this great destiny, like she's some kind of hero that has to fight a battle that no one else can! Well that's all done and over with! I hope she enjoys what little freedom she has right now, because whenever she comes back that is it! She'll be going to a private school, and getting as far away from you people as possible! Her only destiny will be maintaining her grades!"

"You can't-"

"Oh you just watch me! I'm her mother, and I can do whatever the hell I want! Now get out of my house! You're no longer welcome here."

Willow ran out of the house, tears falling down her cheeks. Her two best friends were missing, and she had just learned that it didn't matter if Xander found Buffy or not because they would lose her all over again.

**Somewhere Outside Sunnydale-4 p.m.**

Xander stopped at a gas station and got out to fill his tank. He walked inside the gas station, paying the pimply-faced teen behind the counter in cash, adding a bag of beef jerky and a coke to his bill. He walked back out to his car and got in, driving in the same direction he had been since leaving Sunnydale that morning,

_This isn't working._

He knew he couldn't keep this up. He couldn't keep driving without a destination in mind. He would run out of funds and more importantly, he would never find Buffy.

_Then start finding her. Think. Where could she be going?_

Xander thought about her. Buffy Summers. She was seventeen, so Slayer or not, she was most likely working with a limited amount of money. Unless Giles had given her access to some kind of super secret slayer bank account that had millions of dollars, and based on the fact that she had been complaining about not being able to buy some new shoes just last week Xander kind of doubted it.

_So plane tickets are probably out of her price range, and the closest train station is over 100 miles away. She had to have taken the bus._

He slammed on his brakes as the thought crossed his mind, ignoring the middle finger he was receiving from the driver behind him. How had he done that? He wasn't stupid by any means, but he would freely acknowledge that this kind of reasoning wasn't exactly his strong suit. His mind drifted back to when he had shown Buffy how to operate a rocket launcher. He had never used an RPG in his life, unless you counted his and Willow's all night Call of Duty sessions when they were younger. But he had known exactly how to use it, and he had only been half-joking when he had told Cordelia he could assemble an M16 in fifty-eight seconds or less.

"I've still got it. I've still got it!"

He still had all the knowledge of the soldier he had become on Halloween, and apparently it was not just a knowledge of regulation and weapons He had the mental skills, an ability to put the pieces together that he hadn't had previously.

_That must've been how I knew to grab more than just that RPG when Cordy and I broke into the base._

The only thing he remembered thinking was that he wanted to be able to help Buffy if and when she needed it. He had built a 'go bag' as it was called in the spy novels he had read, even though he didn't remember actively deciding to do so. He had made sure it had all the essentials if he ever had to either leave town or have Buffy's back against someone like the Master.

It had all been instinctual, something he'd known how to do thanks to the soldier's skills. So what if he let that instinct guide him now? It had helped him once. Maybe it could do so again.

_So Buffy had to take the bus. There are only a couple places before you get to the state line. She could have gone to LA, Vegas, or Hemory. But which one?_

Hemory was discarded almost immediately. Buffy wouldn't want to go back to the place where she burned down a gym to stop some vampires. Knowing his friend the way he did, he knew that she felt guilt over killing Angel. She wouldn't go somewhere that reminded her of being a Slayer. That meant that she had to be in Vegas or LA.

_But which one?_

As he pulled up to the intersection, he saw a sign. According to the sign, Vegas was 30 miles from where he was. Los Angeles was 15.

_I really hope you chose LA Buff. _

With that thought, he took a right turn at the intersection.

**Los Angeles: 5 p.m.**

Xander got out of his car and stretched his legs. Driving for most of the afternoon had taken a toll on him. He was hungry and exhausted. He had spotted a small diner on the way into town, and he had decided that hunger took precedence over exhaustion. He grabbed a couple of things out of his bag and locked the car before heading inside the diner. He took a seat at one of the booths in the back corner that would give him a clear view of the door. Not something he would normally do, but something he had done instinctually without making the conscious choice.

"What'll it be hon?" An elderly waitress asked as she walked over to him. He blinked, only now realizing he hadn't even looked at the menu.

"Just coffee for now." He said, and she nodded.

"Cream and sugar?"

"Please." He said, and she nodded again before leaving his table. She was back a moment later, shaking her head as she watched him put two creams and three sugars in his coffee.

"You kids sure like it sweet these days don't you?" She asked, and he chuckled.

"I suppose. Can I get the cheeseburger, with extra pickles and the house fries?" He asked.

"Sure. Single or double?"

He thought about it, remembering he hadn't eaten anything except for beef jerky all day.

"Double please. Thanks."

"Not a problem. How do you want it cooked?"

"Medium." He replied, handing her his menu.

He sipped at his coffee, grateful for the caffeine jolt. The coke hadn't done much for him, and he hadn't slept well in days. He wouldn't sleep well until he knew Buffy was okay.

"Hey Anne, can you clean off table three for me before you go home?"

A man's voice came from where Xander assumed the kitchen was located. He took another sip of his coffee, coughing as it went down the wrong pipe.

"Sure thing Al."

Xander almost dropped his coffee cup. He knew that voice. It had haunted his better dreams for the last year. He got up, walking over toward the waitress who had spoken. She was facing away from him, so he reached out and tapped her on the shoulder

"Excuse me?"

"Look buddy, I just had some fat idiot play grab ass a little bit ago, so I wouldn't touch me right now. Now what do you...Xander." She said as she turned to face him.

"Hey Buffy. We gotta talk."

**A/N: So here is chapter 2! Chapter 3 will be up soon, probably before the next chapter of Bewitched and Bewildered as I really know where I want to go with this story! Thanks to everyone who has read, favorited, followed and reviewed this story. I hope you continue to enjoy my work.**


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